Seraphina POV:

"Seraphina!" Isabella's voice rang out over the mic. "Come up here, sister."

My stomach churned. I stepped out of the shadows, clutching the velvet pouch.

I walked onto the stage. "I... I have a gift," I stammered.

Isabella snatched it. She pulled out the modest pearl earrings I had saved for months to buy.

"Oh, how... quaint," she laughed, tossing them onto a table like garbage.

The crowd chuckled.

Isabella reached to pat my cheek, but her eyes locked onto my wrist.

I wore a bracelet of rough volcanic stone and a single unpolished moonstone. It was ugly, but it was the anchor I had used to ground Dante during his blindness.

"That!" Isabella gasped. "That bracelet! She stole it! That's the one I lost the night I saved you, Dante!"

It was a lie so bold it took my breath away.

Dante stiffened. He inhaled the scent of the stone.

"Is this true?" he growled.

"No," I said. "It's mine. I used it to help you focus when the pain—"

Dante grabbed my wrist, his grip crushing. He ran a thumb over the stone. A flash of memory crossed his face.

But then he looked at Isabella's fake tears.

"You stole a memento of our survival," he snarled.

"I am the one who saved you!" I screamed. "I am Seven!"

Smack.

My father rushed the stage and backhanded me. I flew backward, crashing into a tower of champagne glasses.

Shards sliced my skin. Alcohol stung like acid.

Isabella walked over, a glass of red wine in hand.

"Thief," she spat.

She poured the wine over my head. It ran down my face like a mark of sin.

Dante turned away, shielding Isabella from the "ugly" sight.

"Get her out of here," he ordered.